The May 1995 tornado outbreak sequence produced 279 tornadoes between May 6 and May 19, 1995, across the Midwestern, Southern and Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. There were three particular outbreaks during that period: those of May 7 to May 9 across the southern Great Plains, May 13–14 across the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys and on May 18—the most intense outbreak—across the Tennessee Valley. Additional tornadoes touched down in the Southeast, the Middle Atlantic and the Central Plains during that period. A total of 13 people were killed during the entire outbreak sequence.

Tracks of all US tornadoes in 1970.

This page documents the tornadoes and tornado outbreaks of 1970, primarily in the United States. Most tornadoes form in the U.S., although some events may take place internationally. Tornado statistics for older years like this often appear significantly lower than modern years due to fewer reports or confirmed tornadoes.

May 9

• 1876 – An F3 tornado moved through downtown Chicago and onto Lake Michigan, killing two people. A newspaper reporter wrote a detailed description of the tornado's multiple-vortex structure, including the presence of a downdraft at the center, a century before such mechanics were documented scientifically.
• 1927 – The third and most violent day of a three-day tornado outbreak resulted in 212 fatalities in the southern and Midwestern United States. An F4 tornado killed 98 people after destroying 31 blocks of Poplar Bluff, Missouri. Other tornadoes had large death tolls in Strong, Arkansas, Nevada, Texas, and Garland, Texas.

May 10

• 1907 – An F5 tornado destroyed much of Snyder, Oklahoma with many homes completely swept away, killing 97 people, including 10 on farms outside of town. Residents did not take shelter because they mistook the approaching tornado for a hail storm.
• 1933 – An F4 tornado, forming just after midnight, destroyed every home in Beatty Swamps near Livingston, Tennessee, with much of the community swept clean, killing 35 people. Nearly everyone in town was killed or injured.
• 2008 – A long-track EF4 tornado killed 21 people and injured 350 as it traveled 75 miles (121 km) across northeastern Oklahoma and southwestern Missouri. Eight people were killed and 150 were injured in Picher, Oklahoma, where about 200 homes were destroyed. Following the tornado and problems created by nearby mines, Picher was abandoned. Another 14 died in Jasper County, Missouri, most of them in cars and mobile homes near Racine.

May 11

• 1953 – An F5 tornado, obscured by heavy rain, leveled a potion of Waco, Texas and killed 114 people, including 30 in a six-story building that collapsed in downtown Waco. This was one of the first tornadoes to be matched with a hook echo by weather radar, but no warning was communicated to residents.
• 1970 – An F5 tornado killed 26 people and destroyed more than 1,000 homes and apartment units in Lubbock, Texas. Ted Fujita led a detailed study of the damage from this tornado, using it to develop the levels of the Fujita scale and improve the understanding of multiple vortex tornadoes.

• ...that the 2013 Moore tornado that struck Moore and Newcastle, Oklahoma, is the most recent EF5 tornado?
• ...that the 2021 South Moravia tornado, an IF4 tornado with winds between 207–260 mph (333–418 km/h), was the strongest tornado to hit the Czech Republic in modern history?